Typhoon Nock-ten lashed northern Taiwan with powerful winds and driving rain on Monday, disrupting international flights and closing financial markets, schools and government offices. Flash flooding killed three people, including a television cameraman and a firefighter.
The typhoon’s eye passed just north of the capital, Taipei, and forecasters said the storm will churn north-east toward Japan, still recovering from a separate typhoon that killed at least 83 people last week as well as a major earthquake at the weekend.
But Nock-ten — which is growing weaker — could be downgraded to a tropical storm before reaching Japan, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau said.
Flood waters swept away TV cameraman Ping Chung-cheng in the northern city of Keelung and he later died, station spokesperson Liu Lee-hui said. Three other reporters were washed away with Ping, but officials rescued them with a rubber dinghy, local media reported.
A man drowned in his flooded home, and a raging river carried away a firefighter, disaster officials said. Both died in Taipei County, which recorded floodwaters of up to two storeys high, officials said.
The typhoon cancelled morning and early-afternoon flights between Taipei and Hong Kong — one of the world’s busiest routes. Taiwan’s two largest carriers, China Airlines and EVA Airways, said planes also stopped flying to Tokyo and south-east Asia.
Officials shut down financial markets, schools and government offices in Taiwan’s major cities.
High winds tore away shop signs in some cities, where branches, twisted umbrellas and other debris littered the streets. Sheets of rain fell at a 45-degree angle in Taipei, where normally congested streets were eerily empty during morning rush hour.
Gusting winds made a strange whistling sound as they hit the glass windows of office buildings.
One fisherman went missing on Sunday near the north-eastern port of Nanao after his bamboo raft flipped over amid high waves whipped up by the typhoon, police said.
Nock-ten, which means ”bird” in Laotian, was about 90km north of Taipei on Monday afternoon, the bureau said. It was speeding up, moving north-east at 23kph, packing sustained winds of 120kph. The typhoon’s gusts were measured at 155kph, the bureau said.
Forecasters warned residents in mountainous areas against flash floods and urged them to evacuate landslide-prone areas immediately.
Taiwan suffered flooding and mudslides when Typhoon Aere hit the island’s north last August. The storm killed more than 30 people and left several missing.
Another severe storm, Mindulle, ravaged central and southern Taiwan in July, killing 29 people. — Sapa-AP